Diabetes is a chronic disorder affecting carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism in animals.
Type I diabetes mellitus, which comprises approximately 10% of all diabetes cases, was previously referred to as insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (“IDDM”) or juvenile-onset diabetes. This disease is characterized by a progressive loss of insulin secretory function by beta cells of the pancreas. This characteristic is also shared by non-idiopathic, or “secondary”, diabetes having its origins in pancreatic disease. Type I diabetes mellitus is associated with the following clinical signs or symptoms: persistently elevated plasma glucose concentration or hyperglycemia; polyuria; polydipsia and/or hyperphagia; chronic microvascular complications such as retinopathy, nephropathy and neuropathy; and macrovascular complications such as hyperlipidemia and hypertension which can lead to blindness, end-stage renal disease, limb amputation and myocardial infarction.
Type II diabetes mellitus (non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus or NIDDM) is a metabolic disorder involving the dysregulation of glucose metabolism and impaired insulin sensitivity. Type II diabetes mellitus usually develops in adulthood and is associated with the body's inability to utilize or make sufficient insulin. In addition to the insulin resistance observed in the target tissues, patients suffering from type II diabetes mellitus have a relative insulin deficiency—that is, patients have lower than predicted insulin levels for a given plasma glucose concentration. Type II diabetes mellitus is characterized by the following clinical signs or symptoms: persistently elevated plasma glucose concentration or hyperglycemia; polyuria; polydipsia and/or hyperphagia; chronic microvascular complications such as retinopathy, nephropathy and neuropathy; and macrovascular complications such as hyperlipidemia and hypertension which can lead to blindness, end-stage renal disease, limb amputation and myocardial infarction.
Syndrome X, also termed Insulin Resistance Syndrome (IRS), Metabolic Syndrome, or Metabolic Syndrome X, is recognized in some 2% of diagnostic coronary catheterizations. Often disabling, it presents symptoms or risk factors for the development of Type II diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease, including impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), impaired fasting glucose (IFG), hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia (e.g., high triglycerides, low HDL), hypertension and obesity.
Therapy for IDDM patients has consistently focused on administration of exogenous insulin, which may be derived from various sources (e.g., human, bovine, porcine insulin). The use of heterologous species material gives rise to formation of anti-insulin antibodies which have activity-limiting effects and result in progressive requirements for larger doses in order to achieve desired hypoglycemic effects.
Typical treatment of Type II diabetes mellitus focuses on maintaining the blood glucose level as near to normal as possible with lifestyle modification relating to diet and exercise, and when necessary, the treatment with anti-diabetic agents, insulin or a combination thereof. NIDDM that cannot be controlled by dietary management is treated with oral antidiabetic agents.
Although insulin resistance is not always treated in all Syndrome X patients, those who exhibit a prediabetic state (e.g., IGT, IFG), where fasting glucose levels may be higher than normal but not at the diabetes diagnostic criterion, is treated in some countries (e.g., Germany) with mefformin to prevent diabetes. The anti-diabetic agents may be combined with pharmacological agents for the treatment of the concomitant co-morbidities (e.g., antihypertensives for hypertension, hypolipidemic agents for lipidemia).
First-line therapies typically include metformin and sulfonylureas as well as thiazolidinediones. Mefformin monotherapy is a first line choice, particularly for treating type II diabetic patients who are also obese and/or dyslipidemic. Lack of an appropriate response to mefformin is often followed by treatment with metformin in combination with sulfonylureas, thiazolidinediones, or insulin. Sulfonylurea monotherapy (including all generations of drugs) is also a common first line treatment option. Another first line therapy choice may be thiazolidinediones. Alpha glucosidase inhibitors are also used as first and second line therapies. Patients who do not respond appropriately to oral anti-diabetic monotherapy, are given combinations of the above-mentioned agents. When glycemic control cannot be maintained with oral antidiabetics alone, insulin therapy is used either as a monotherapy, or in combination with oral antidiabetic agents.
One recent development in treating hyperglycemia is focused on excretion of excessive glucose directly into urine. Specific inhibitors of SGLTs have been shown to increase the excretion of glucose in urine and lower blood glucose levels in rodent models of IDDM and NIDDM.